Surveying My Options

SurveyMonkey has a great free service. I was able to set up an assessment survey without any trouble, until.... Would you believe I got stumped by the final step? I couldn't figure out how to find the correct URL to post for participants to take the survey. Fortunately, it seems I'm not the only one who had problems; they have the answer in the first page of the Support FAQs. Great tool, with only one small unintuitive step.

As teachers we frequently pretest our students before we start a new unit. This online tool allowed me to create a ten question survey in about 15 minutes. I'll be able to retrieve the anonymous responses online, view the responses in aggregate, and then look at the individual responses. Why not try it for one of your next pretests?

Teachers as ARE Learners

I'll admit it...I'm a teacher. And a learner. I can't stop myself. Something catches my attention, and I have to explore, investigate, tear it apart. It's a wonder my parents survived my youth! As an adult, no matter what job I've been paid for, I've always ended up teaching. And learning. Now, as a middle school Tech teacher, I'm moving to a different level: offering to teach my fellow teachers. Guess what...I'm learning as well.

My current exercise is trying to create a meaningful learning opportunity focused on using the Internet. Does my target audience already use the 'Net? Certainly, if only for school email and entering grades and attendance. What do I have to offer them? What I see as the incredible universe titled Web 2.0. The problem is this: I'm a geek (freely admitted) and the people I'm writing for probably aren't comfortable wearing this label.

How do I open the virtual windows without scaring them to death? Some of them probably have My*pace accounts, most of them have never heard of Ning, and a few (who have suffered through other sessions I've offered) have del.icio.us accounts. Can you hear the reactions I'm imagining?

Blogs? Something that is blocked from school, and who has time for that anyway. Podcasts? Something that requires an iPod that can't be afforded on a teacher's salary. DSN? We're a rural community that doesn't have access to high-speed Internet. Wiki? What tha?.

But it's worth the effort! I want to share all the neat stuff that is out there. I want other people to get excited by David Warlick, Miguel Guhlin, Wes Fryer. I want to meet people at Tapped In who I know in the "meat world." Why can't we use the opportunities afforded by Wikispaces to help our students grow and learn while we do the same?

And of course I'm off on a tangent as soon as I start creating the links in this post. Wouldn't you know it, when I went to Miguel's blog to pick up the correct URL, his March 20 entry hit me full in the face. Before I could come back here and create the link, I had to go to Randy Rodger's edublog Teaching Better with Web 2.0 and find this

...a teacher first needs to view their blogging, reading of other blogs, bookmarking, etc. as an essential part of the classroom preparation time. Think of the time already spent gathering materials, perusing teacher’s guides, creating handouts/worksheets, etc. If but a small portion of this time is redirected towards learning/doing something new, a teacher can quickly develop a proficiency level and begin to identify ways to effectively utilize the tools of web 2.o in their instruction. One planning period a week is a great place to start!

Well. Hmm. Okay. Let's let this entry be the beginning of my journey preparing the new Internet exercise. Fellow learners, start your engines!